America's aviation system is in chaos. How much worse will it be in 10 years living with the same airport system that has no surplus capacity, This is about long-term planning for the future. Something must be done now. . .
Wayports will provide long-term airport system capacity needed to avoid gridlock and accommodate "globalization" that is upon us. International and domestic passengers, express mail and cargo are increasing. Next generation large aircraft are entering the fleet that will double in 20 years. Airline delays have reached $9 billion annually. Air transportation links us to other continents because highways and rail don't exist and ships are too slow.
Wayports can be located at new greenfield sites, former military airfields or underutilized airports on the fringe of urban areas in rural settings. Wayports reduce development costs, environmental concerns and opposition related to noise and emissions. They would be the economic nucleus of Airport Cities. A new airport planned for Peotone, Illinois meets Wayport criteria.
Wayports serve origin/destination (O&D) and connecting domestic and international passengers, cargo, express mail, U.S. and International mail, general aviation, aircraft maintenance and manufacturing, commercial and industrial sites. A Wayport functions as a collection/distribution center serving all users and global aeronautical activities especially cargo and goods from emerging economies like China and India. Cargo operations could be the initial activity until passenger traffic builds up. Many come by express highways, regional and high speed rail links. Passengers are attracted to a Wayport to avoid inner city surface congestion and congested hubs.
FAA still clings to it's policy that all that's needed to meet long-term growth to 2025 is to expand the 35 busiest airports. Only 3 new large hub airports have been built in the last 50 years at Dallas, Denver and Orlando. Dallas and Denver were new greenfield sites built primarily for connecting passengers. Orlando was built on an abandoned military base primarily to serve originating/destination (O&D) passengers. A supplemental airport has never been built even though FAA declared a Wayport to be a reasonable/feasible alternative to new runways in an Environmental Statement at Dallas-Ft. Worth.
Change is needed. Planning and decision making for a long-term nationwide airport system going beyond existing political jurisdictions and traditional methods and processes must be done now. Lack of system capacity must be addressed in a different way than the past. New innovative and non-traditional approaches must be considered such as creating an Interstate Aviation System using the same emphasis and funding priority that created the Interstate Highway System. Rationing airport access using congestion management, slots, peak hour pricing, depeaking, reregulation, and banning general aviation is an admission of failure and a disgrace to America's innovation and creativeness.
Local governments and private interests do not have the jurisdictional coverage or legislative authority to plan a nationwide system of airports integrated with rail, highways and air traffic control (ATC). Wayports differ from local airports because they are planned as a system rather than independently of one another. This is why leadership, policy and control of long-term nationwide airport system planning must be performed at the National level as ATC and Interstate Highway Systems are done.
Transportation Research Board (TRB} will complete Research Study ACRP 03-10 "Innovative Approaches to Addressing Aviation Capacity Issues in Coastal Mega-Regions in February 2009. Wayports advocates have recommended this type of study for years. However, TRB limited it's study to 2 coastal mega-regions instead of all U.S mega-regions. Wayports should be addressed in the study and why not? TRB published a report saying "No other approach appears to be capable of handling the 200-300% increase in travel that could develop by 2020". Following are excerpts from TRB's scope that confirms this is a study of Wayports without using the term.
"Traditional approaches are unlikely to address problems that extend beyond current jurisdictional and legislative authorities of existing agencies. Current airport planning is done at three levels: airport specific (master plan), metropolitan, regional and state system planning. Those focused plans are not sufficient to address capacity limitations. The effects that the traffic from major airports has on each other needs to be better understood.
New and innovative processes/methodologies are needed if aviation capacity issues are going to be successfully addressed. High-density areas invite an entirely new approach for planning and decision making that goes beyond existing practices for transportation planning and programming usually accomplished within political jurisdictions or regions. Optimizing available resources for expansion of transportation infrastructure to accommodate anticipated growth should be a key consideration.
The objective of the research is to develop integrated strategic actions to enhance decision making to address constrained aviation system capacity and growing travel demand. The research is intended to be used by transportation agencies and operators as well as for informing public officials at the federal, state and local levels.
Aviation system capacity issues (current and future) that may arise from constraints related to such things as airports physical features, airspace, airline practices and legally enforceable policies need to be described. Existing passenger air travel patterns that include factors such as origin and destination versus connecting, origin and destination by city pair, and domestic versus international need to be characterized
Current and potential demand and capacity of existing and planned highway and intercity rail alternatives that could have the potential to complement the air mode need to be characterized. Identify and quantify, to the extent possible, capacity shortfalls for the air, highway and intercity rail systems. Identify qualitatively and quantitatively the social, economic, environmental and energy consequences of not addressing deficiencies identified.
Opportunities to address the deficiencies of air, intercity rail and highway systems need to be identified. Opportunities may include such things as institutional, jurisdictional, regulatory, financial, operational and infrastructure changes. Integrated strategic actions that can lead to a vision and enhanced decision-making framework for advancing innovative solutions appropriate to capacity issues are to be proposed".
A National Transportation Policy and Vision for a long-term nationwide aviation system needs to be created by a National Transportation Commission appointed by the President. Airports, airways, highways and regional and high speed rail would be integrated with Wayports as the Cornerstone. The Commission would be limited to planning with recommendations about implementation and sources of funding.
Comment to theway@wayports.com or jsheppard@bellsouth.net who is a former FAA official.
